Letter from the President

Last month President Ohashi opened this revitalised IUCr website with a warm invitation to the XXI Congress and General Assembly to be held in Osaka, Japan.  We can now look back at days in Osaka that were in all ways very memorable. The Congress got off to a flying start with the 60th anniversary ceremony and the presentation of the Ewald Prize to David Sayre - a magnificent start to seven days of a great and intense scientific programme.

All the participants in the congress owe great thanks to the International Programme committee and the Japanese organizers for the organization of this successful Congress. A special thanks should go to the Past President, Professor Yuji Ohashi, for his tireless and successful efforts in bringing in external funding to support the Congress.

Being in Osaka, the centre of Japanese business life, and experiencing Japanese culture and friendliness, were other very memorable aspects of the Congress for the overseas participants. As one of the 2600 participants in the congress I felt that it was very stimulating and inspiring scientifically, and that we were experiencing the growth of crystallography both scientifically and socially without loss of community feeling. Crystallographers around the world who did not manage to attend the XXI Congress can get a flavour of the great scientific atmosphere by  looking at the abstracts of the conference (http://www.iucr2008.jp/cdrom/index.html) that are Open Access, and by browsing the informal photographs and reports posted on this site.